Blast-induced injuries affect the health of service members, veterans, and other victims, in which the auditory system is often damaged rupturing the tympanic membrane (TM) and reducing the number of viable cochlear hair cells. Blast-induced auditory damage to the outer and middle ear can usually be non-invasively observed but examining the damage to the inner ear is difficult to quantify. Finite element (FE) modeling and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provide tools that allow for the prediction of the inner ear functional changes and assessment of the inner ear damage, respectively, when the ear is exposed to blast. Hearing protection devices (HPDs) have become the critical personal protection equipment to avoid this auditory damage for service members. Acoustic test fixtures and human temporal bones (TBs) have been used to test and develop HPDs; however, the lack of a cost-effective, standardized model impedes the improvement of HPDs. In this study, we utilized a FE model of the human ear with a spiraled, two-chambered cochlea to simulate the response of the anatomically structured cochlea to blast overpressure (BOP) exposure. The FE model included an ear canal, a middle ear, and two and a half turns of a two-chambered cochlea and simulated a BOP transmission from the ear canal entrance to the spiral cochlea. The model was validated with experimental pressure measurements from the outer and middle ear of human cadaveric TBs. The results showed high stapes footplate displacements resulting in high intracochlear pressures and basilar membrane (BM) displacements at a BOP input of 30.7 kPa. The cochlea’s spiral shape caused asymmetric pressure distributions across the width of the cochlea and significant BM transverse motion. To create a standardized model for testing HPDs, a 3D printed human TB model was developed that reproduces the responses observed in blast testing of human TBs with and without HPDs. The 3D printed model consisted of the ear canal, TM, ossicular chain, middle ear suspensory ligaments/muscle tendons, and middle ear cavity. Pressures were measured at the ear canal entrance (P0) and near the TM in the ear canal (P1) during blasts then compared to similar tests in human TBs. Laser Doppler vibrometry was used to further validate TM movement under acoustic stimulation. Results indicated that in the 3D printed TB, the attenuated peak pressures at P1 induced by HPDs ranged from 0.92 – 1.06 psi (170 – 171 dB) with blast peak pressures of 5.62 – 6.54 psi (186 – 187 dB) at P0 which were well within the mean and standard deviation of published data from tests in human TBs. SEM imaging was used to investigate the viability of outer hair cells (OHCs) of chinchillas that were exposed to six consecutive blast exposures ranging from 21-35 kPa (3-5 psi) and the effect of liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, on OHC survival after blast exposure. Results showed that OHC loss did not differ among animal groups; however, the auditory brainstem response results showed hearing function loss in BOP exposed groups, and drug-treated chinchillas did regain more hearing function after blast. The spiral cochlea model reported in this dissertation provides a necessary advancement for progress towards a model able to predict the potential hearing loss sustained during BOP exposure. The developed 3D printed TB provides an accurate and cost-effective evaluation tool for HPDs’ protective function against BOP exposure with the potential to perform as a human temporal bone model for research in ear biomechanics for acoustic transmission and the development of middle ear implants. Furthermore, the SEM study increases our understanding of the link between TBI and hearing loss while also supporting the use of liraglutide as a therapeutic for blast victims. In conclusion, the work reported in this dissertation increases our understanding of cochlear mechanics and sustained damage from blast exposure, and as such, creates opportunities for future research that will progress towards the goals of understanding the damage mechanisms of blast in the inner ear, creating a model that can accurately predict the damage to the ear from a given stimulus, and improving HPDs’ effectiveness for protection against BOP exposure.